“I’m borrowing this phrase from Susan Cain and Dan Pink, who use it in a podcast I listened to ages ago to describe introverted kids. Little introverts aren’t great at explaining themselves in short, pithy sound bites; instead, it often takes them a long time to put their thoughts together. They have long runways.” When you have a long runway – Modern Mrs Darcy

“Many of us have forgotten, well, how to be us. We’ve lost how to actually be a face behind the name. To be more than a piece of paper. A status update. A picture. A Tweet. A LOL. We hide behind screens and phones, interacting with each other in ways that require less need for us to really be us” The Need for Real. Live. Human. Beings – All Groan Up

Religion

“Here’s evangelical thinking about sex in a nutshell: You shouldn’t have pre-marital sex because it’s sinful. You shouldn’t masturbate because it’s sinful. You shouldn’t have sexual thoughts because it’s sinful. And while we’re at it, let’s just teach abstinence-only sex education, because educating Christians about what sex is and how it works and how to have it as safely as possible would only give them ideas… and we can’t have them thinking now, can we? This is also the sort of thinking that makes evangelicals more homophobic than the rest of society. When they think of LGBT people, all they think about is sex. Not love, not family, not community, just sex. And sex is bad. Always bad. Unless you’re married, but gay people shouldn’t be allowed get married, because that might lead to gay sex, and, as stated earlier, that’s bad.” The Real Problem With Female Masturbation is that Evangelicals Are Too Sex-Negative to Talk About it Honestly – Friendly Atheist

“This familiar pattern happens a lot, by the way. For example, when a terrible car accident happens, they have him waiting until after the cars collide to save one guy out of four, leaving him paralyzed for life. That man and his family will probably praise God for saving him from this tragic accident. It could have been worse, right? God could have waited a second longer. Or perhaps someone gets cancer. God didn’t stop her from getting it, but after trained oncologists and surgeons cut away and treat the afflicted areas, God sweeps in and “heals” her…for at least a few years. Don’t even get me started on God working to bring to justice the guy who molests his stepdaughter. You’d think he might have stepped in before that happened; but hey, his ways are higher, remember?
This is terrible talk, I agree. Doesn’t it make your stomach turn? It should. It does mine. The truth of the matter is that nobody is sitting silently by, watching these awful things unfold. We are the only protectors, defenders, and first responders we will ever have. Sometimes things happen and we can’t keep them from happening. All we can do is do our best to prepare for the worst, and pull together to help each other out when things do go bad. That’s what people do, religious or not. They don’t do it because of their religion; they do it because we’re in this thing together, and we know we have to look out for each other. Nature rewards those species which help each other out. That’s why it feels good to do things for people, even complete strangers, expecting nothing in return. That’s how people get by down here. Around here they will almost universally credit God with the good parts of what happens (unless they’re Calvinists, in which case he does it all), and they will likely never ask themselves any of the questions I mentioned above.” Why Praising God in the Storm Should Make Your Stomach Turn – Godless in Dixie

Equality

“Men, on the other hand, are discouraged from greater levels of emotional intimacy, especially with other men. Sharing is weakness, and weakness is something to be avoided among men. Weakness and vulnerability can only be shown to those who are not in a position to damage our status in the masculine hierarchy. And besides… it’s kinda gay, bro. Since men are socialized to not be connected with our emotions – outside, of course, from anger and lust – we tend to all associate emotional intimacy with romance (and therefore sex), confusing philios with eros and agape. As a result, the only people we feel comfortable opening up to are the ones who we might potentially fuck as well.” The Surprising Need for Male Intimacy – Dr NerdLove

“Anyhoo, even from where I was sitting it was impossible to miss that this year’s winner (or at least, the person everyone’s talking about) is Conchita Wurst. Unable to resist a palaver, I gave ‘er a google and a watch. Aside from having a daycent song (if you like that kind of thing, which I do), Wurst also presents as strikingly gender-variant. And also just plain striking (those eyes!). And while most people are cheerfully (and accurately) exclaiming about how great she is, there’s also the loudmouths who seem to have missed out on how to deal courteously and calmly with the fact that there exist people on this planet whose genders aren’t immediately apparent to bystanders.
This post is for them.” How to Not Be a Complete Douchecanoe to Gender Variant People – Consider the Teacosy